Writing, Research, and Creativity Quotes from Deborah Kalb Book Q&As: 2nd Half of 2023

This post is a follow up to my July 28 curation of quotes, links, and book information drawn from my regular posts about the Deborah Kalb book/author Q&As. And on September 20, I interviewed Deborah about her first novel for adults, in “Three Questions for Deborah Kalb, Author of Off to Join the Circus.”

Continued kudos to Deborah for the many high quality author interviews she publishes each week about both fiction and nonfiction books. They provide a valuable window into the writing process, and demonstrate that while there are commonalities among authors and books, each publishing experience is unique.

Be sure to check out these and Deborah’s many other Book Q&As; and Happy New Year to all!

Author: Michelle Cameron

Book: Babylon

Author quote: “The real challenge in researching this novel, I believe, came from adapting Bible stories so they at once felt probable without sacrificing the possibility of miracle.”

Author: Jerome Charyn

Book: Ravage & Son

Author quote: “I never know how a novel is going to end.  If I did, why would I bother writing it?”  

Author: Tracy Clark

Book: Fall

Author quote: “The cool thing about crime fiction is that it kind of has its own linear progression.”

Author: Sandra Fox

Book: The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America

Author quote: “It is a scholarly account, to be sure, but I knew the book would have a significant readership outside of academia, and I wanted to show my voice wherever it made sense to.”

Author: Nora Fussner  

Book: The Invisible World

Author quote: “I struggled with the “origin story” of the house–all haunted houses have some tragedy at the center, but I couldn’t come up with anything that satisfied me.”

Author: Cristina García

Book: Vanishing Maps

Author quote: “For me, the power is always in the juxtapositions of beauty, hilarity, and the macabre.”

Author: Tess Gerritsen

Book: The Spy Coast

Author quote: “I look around at my community, which is very much full of retirees, and I see gray-haired people still active in politics, environmental causes, and world affairs. They’re wise, vital citizens, and they inspire me.”  

Author: Gilly Macmillan

Book: The Manor House

Author quote: “I don’t plan my books in advance, so characters and plot develop and reveal themselves to me as I write and that’s exciting, surprising, and sometimes shocking. If I can maintain that experience for the reader, I’m very happy.”

Author: Christian McEwen   

Book:  In Praise of Listening

Author quote: “There is a strange tendency towards cliché when people write or talk about the act of listening.”

Author: T.C. Morrison

Book: Send in the Tort Lawyer$

Author quote: “This book is the third in a series of farcical novels about class action lawyers.”

Author: W. Russell Neuman

Book: Evolutionary Intelligence: How Technology Will Make Us Smarter

Author quote: “We don’t want AI to just imitate us and think like humans. We want it to improve human thinking.”   

Author: Sophie Overett

Book: The Rabbits

Author quote: “Genre writing can sometimes get a bit of a bad rap, which is always a shame to me.”

Author: Chuck Raasch

Book: Life Painted Red: The True Story of Corabelle Fellows and How Her Life on the Dakota Frontier Became a National Scandal

Author quote: “I also spent many hours in the Center for Western Studies and other research libraries that had kept papers of famous missionaries that Corabelle had worked with.”  

Author: Lynne B. Sagalyn  

Book: Times Square Remade: The Dynamics of Urban Change

Author quote: “For 125 years Times Square has captured the imagination of cultural observers, historians, sociologists, and urban scholars, not to mention photographers, artists, and journalists.”

Author: David Waldstreicher

Book: The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence

Author quote: “Early on I decided I needed to read anything and everything Phillis Wheatley read, especially anything she referred to or I could be sure made an impression on her.”

Author: Jeremy T. Wilson

Book: The Quail Who Wears the Shirt

Author quote: “It is vital to have other eyes on your work. We can fool ourselves into believing something’s fresh when it’s actually well beyond its expiration date.”  

Author: Esther Zeledón

Book: Creating Your Limitless Life

Author quote: “The local library became my sanctuary, a place where I immersed myself in Lonely Planet guides and autobiographies, drawing inspiration from tales of world-changers and distant lands.”

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Bruce Rosenstein

Author, Editor, Speaker, BLOGGER

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